Why has Dante's THE DIVINE COMEDY lasted 700 years? Its architecture, its invitation to multiplicity, and its very human motivation: love.
Read More
We finally come to the crowd in Limbo's castle: a great list of warriors, thinkers, writers, geometers, physicians, and (yes) Islamic writers.
Read More
Dante gets put in the company of the great poets. Problem is, they're in hell. Also, Dante's not written enough. The passages in Inferno get curiouser.
Read More
Virgil answers Dante's question: Does anyone get out of Inferno? Yes! But maybe not the one soul who matters. Not Virgil, Dante's poetic father.
Read More
Limbo is Dante's first donnybrook, his first beef with Christian theology in THE DIVINE COMEDY. He changes church doctrine. Because he's Dante.
Read More
Virgil leads Dante home--to Virgil's home, that is. To Limbo, the place where babies sigh. Virgil also offers a theology of Limbo. But is it believable?
Read More
Charon's off at his job. Virgil's gotten suddenly kinder. And Dante? He's not in good shape, standing on the shore of the river that borders hell.
Read More
The shore of hell! Here comes Charon and his boat. Here are the damned, waiting to cross. And here are Virgil and Dante, having a spat.
Read More
The first bit of hell we see is the hell we've always wanted, a sadist's dream. Except what's being punished? The failure to make up your mind.
Read More
Dante and Virgil arrive at hell's gate. Virgil's response is certainly strange. A cheerful look? Stranger still, those words over the gate. Abandon hope!
Read More
Virgil has bested Dante. He's given him purpose and hope. And Beatrice has given desire and rhetoric. He needs nothing else to set off across the cosmos.
Read More
